I have recently bought myself one of these drones or whatever you like to call them. It seems to be one of those hobbies that is exploding in popularity. I think that we will all be ducking and weaving on Christmas day. Anyone else using a drone? Apologies if I have missed previous posts on the subject.The technology is truly amazing in some of these machines. The one I have is a DJI Phantom 4 and is basically a flying camera. It is a high end hobby or lower end professional camera drone. The camera can shoot 4K video and for those who don't know it's a couple of steps above HD tv. Only the most modern smart TVs can show it. I have had a lot of fun with mine over the last few weeks. Beware though that they are considered small aircraft and are therefore subject to the rules set out by CASA. The one I have has 2 IMUs. One for flight control and one for the camera. It uses 2 satellite systems, GPS and Glassnos for navigation and can fly autonomously and stop at waypoints to take pics or video as setup by the user. It also has obstacle avoidance systems and will "return home" and land if signal is lost between the drone and the remote control unit. Truly a high tech bit of gear. A couple of pics I have taken. The first is Peats Island on the Hawksbury river. On this day I flew it right across the river and it was 1.2 kays away from me at the furthest point. The 2nd pic is Ivy Rock about 25 kys North of Dunedoo NSW. I did a little experiment with this one and erased a car and caravan the were passing on the road to the right of the rock.Love to hear form others using drones.

Hi Peter,My P4 is around the $2000 price but worth every cent IMHO. Add a few accessories and it adds up quick. A spare battery is north of $200 but you need them as flight time is quoted as 28 minutes. Of course that is in optimal conditions, add a bit of wind and it cuts into your battery life. It is very stable even in strong wind and will just hover in place. The same company has a more expensive model that can be operated by 2 people. One to fly and the other to operate the camera.I bought my youngest son a battery powered helicopter a few years back and he flew it with little problems but I found it really difficult. He is into the Gaming scene on Xbox and I think that really helped him master the chopper. We have an RC copter club in the area and I must say they are truly impressive to watch. There are many types of drone with racing being very popular. Mine is a flying camera but still has some pretty impressive ability, being able to do 75 kph in "sport" mode. A couple of things I have seen on youtube is the same model doing just over 100 kph with a tail wind and 2 guys who set up one over 12 miles away from away from the remote and starting it up and flying back towards the guy with the remote. Impressive.They have different modes such as Follow me, auto orbit, way point, 360 panorama etc. The software is open source so there are a number of apps available. They used to mount a Go pro camera but now have one built in. Of course Go Pro has just released a drone themselves.A very cool toy.

I call them clay pigeons because if one ever buzzes over my place with its cameras I will try and take it out of the sky. Then there is the ones that are at the beach...... In case you haven't guessed I am not a fan. Roger

Detrackozi uses a drone. We have had a few pictures shown of the different Token Hunts from above. Is yours program limited to 400 ft?I see the Americans delete a car occasionally with their drones, usually no caravan attached.

I call them clay pigeons because if one ever buzzes over my place with its cameras I will try and take it out of the sky. Then there is the ones that are at the beach...... In case you haven't guessed I am not a fan. Roger

Going by the Australia laws they should never be over your house or a busy beach. They must not be flown within 30 metres of a person, building, vehicle or flown over a "populous area such as a beach". Of course they will always be those in any hobby who ignore the laws and rules. I would be interested to see how the authorities would handle the situation if someone knocked one out of the sky. There have been a few shot down in the States.

Mine is limited to 120 metres (400ft) altitude as that is the Australia height limit. All flights are recorded on my device and also back at the factory. I wonder if a court could get access to those records. Probably not as the factory is in China.

May Samsung Tab won't work with them. Just crashes but it's an older model. The pics were taken on a Saturday late morning. A soccer game started in the main field over the fence. I flew it there because we were detecting the area and to maintain the CASA regulations you need a big park or sports field. Not to be closer than 30 metres to a building, vehicle or person.Newcastle is not as busy as say Sydney or Melbourne. Australia's biggest country town.

Yes I have seen some of the drone fishing vids. One was at Fingal Bay, just up the road. The amount of drones on the market is exploding. I think we will all be ducking and weaving on Xmas day. It's a bit of a concern as I'm sure many parents will not be aware of the regulations.

Thank you everyone for your interest and comments. I am afraid I cannot really help with rules for each state or which machine is best to buy. I am just a newby myself, having only bough my machine several weeks ago. All I can suggest is to do your research just as with buying a detector. There are forums, Facebook pages etc dedicated to Drones. Two new products have recently been released, the Karma from GoPro and the new DJI Mavic. Both can be folded up which makes them much more portable. Best of luck if you buy one. They can be a lot of fun.